‘Your perseverance gives us hope’

There is a growing conviction throughout the world that the only way to counter the extremism and the fundamentalism in the theocratic regime in Iran is to replace that regime. And you — you, the free people of Iran — are the hope for the future of all of the Iranian people.

You are the ones who can eradicate this scourge on humanity and who can stop the export of terrorism that is from the regime in Tehran. Your movement, under the leadership and the direction of Madame Maryam Rajavi, is the one true movement that can replace this regime. I want to salute you today for your courage and for your perseverance of the MEK and the NCRI. You are the ones who remain committed to freedom and to democracy for Iran, and to eradicate the suppression, the terrorism and the regime’s demonizing campaign that has been directed at you.

Your perseverance gives us hope that we shall in the end defeat the phenomena of Islamic fundamentalism, whose heart beats in the clerical regime in Iran.

• Linda Chavez is founder and chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a syndicated columnist. This excerpt is from remarks she gave at the July 1 rally in Paris.